School Funding Fight

Today the BCCT prints an editorial on the school funding crisis in Pennsylvania. The Philadelphia Inquirer editorialized on the same plan back on May 4.

There's plenty to see at the PDE's website covering the 2008-2009 budget proposals.

What are the Emperor and his accomplices constructively doing about school funding? Are they pressuring the Rendell Administration? Lobbying our senator and state representative? Have they passed any resolutions declaring support or even opposition to this plan and sent the resolution to Harrisburg?

I'm asking because of the Allentown Morning Call (SW's favorite newspaper, don't forget) published an article April 11 that pointed out the problem of politicians: They don't wanna do nothin'. Once they commissioned the study that showed Pennsylvania schools are underfunded, they were left holding a political hot potato. So they are going to study the study and kill it with time and studied indifference.

We need to contact our representatives in Harrisburg. So do our elected school board members: clearly, vocally, and publicly.

Or are they just content with publicly whining about how unfair the current funding plan is and not following through with the hard work of making proposals become reality?

While I think about it, someone got up at a recent school board meeting and said, "Someone needs to do something" about the tax situation. Well, DUH. Talk about a stroke of the blinding obvious.

First off, I remember very well who said that from the audience. Now it's time to pay up. Congratulations! YOU, sir, are that someone. Introduce a resolution in the borough council supporting this tax plan. Get one introduced in the school board. Pass them both unanimously and present them tied with red ribbons and bows to Governor Rendell, Senator McIlhenney, and Representative Galloway.

We the public are keeping you accountable as local officeholders so you can keep our state officials accountable. Step up to the plate. Are you going to hit, or just take four pitches and hope for a walk? And if you can't or won't do it, let's all step up to the microphone at Union St and shout "Shame on You!"

Pay now, or pay later: School funding formula needs updating.

We go on and on about equal opportunity in this country. It’s ingrained in our thinking. Unfortunately, we don’t practice what we preach. Consider education.

Because Pennsylvania schools are largely funded with property taxes, wealthy school districts provide more and better educational opportunities than lowincome districts. A lot more. Try an annual expenditure of $21,399 per student in Lower Merion vs. $9,727 in Upper Darby.

No wonder there are vast differences in test scores and graduation rates around the state.

Harrisburg is supposed to even out things via a funding formula for rationing out state education money. But the formula is woefully out of date and is not getting the job done.

The governor’s proposed education budget, now under consideration by state lawmakers, proposes a new formula based on the Legislature’s own “Costing-Out Study.” Among the study’s findings was this shocker: Of Pennsylvania’s 501 school districts, 474 are underfunded. It also found that the state picks up just more than one-third of the cost of public education vs. the national average of nearly 50 percent.

We urge lawmakers to approve the governor’s updated funding formula.

If education is the key to success, every child deserves an “equal” opportunity to succeed.

The state can pay now and reap the benefits of its educated citizens’ success, or pay later to rescue those who fail.

The Philadelphia Inquirer editorialized on the same plan back on May 4.

School Funding: A fairer plan

It's past time for Pennsylvania to enact a new formula to fund public schools.

The legislature should approve Gov. Rendell's plan to change how state aid is allocated and boost education funding by $291 million.

It's not the complete funding overhaul that many education advocates want, but it puts the state on the right course.

The six-year plan would increase the state's share of education costs from the current 37 percent - among the lowest in the country - to about 44 percent.

Taxpayers should be relieved to know that the proposal calls for no broad-based tax increases.

The plan would increase state funding by 6 percent above the nearly $5 billion currently allocated to public schools. Similar annual increases would occur until Rendell leaves office in 2011.

In the biggest change, Rendell wants to distribute the new aid based on a formula that gives more money to the neediest districts - those with the largest numbers of students living in poverty and students learning English as a second language.

New Jersey began using a similar approach this year. It makes sense, given that it does cost more to educate students with special needs.

Last year's "costing out" study commissioned by the legislature recommended the new formula. The study also concluded that Pennsylvania public schools are underfunded by $4.38 billion.

Some districts may remain underfunded under Rendell's plan, but his proposed increases will be an improvement, and they will help bridge the spending disparities between the state's poor and wealthy districts.

For example, Lower Merion spends more than $21,000 per student, while Upper Darby spends $9,889. Getting a high-quality public education shouldn't depend on where you live.

Under the governor's formula, Upper Darby would get an increase of $4.9 million, or 22.4 percent, the largest percentage jump in the state.

Philadelphia, the state's largest district and one of the poorest, would get an additional $86 million, a 9.6 percent increase. That money is sorely needed; district officials are projecting at least a $39 million deficit.

Even the most affluent districts in the state would receive at least a 1.5 percent increase in aid. Rendell's plan also increases spending for special education, pre-kindergarten and charter school tuition reimbursements.

House Republicans argue that money alone won't fix public education. They're right, but it is absolutely essential for the many Pennsylvania districts with needs that truly require more spending.

Greater accountability is essential, too. One need only look at the Chester Upland district, taken over by the state years ago, to see an example of a lack of adequate oversight in the past.

But neither does accountability alone complete the equation that produces good schools.

Too many school districts have been underfunded by the state for too long, placing an unfair burden on local property taxpayers who must make up the difference. The governor's new funding formula should be approved.


Allentown Morning Call
Rendell calls legislators' bluff on school funds April 11, 2008

Last year, state lawmakers received the results of a study they had authorized to find out what it should cost to achieve a quality education in public school. Pennsylvania and Congress have demanded that schools do a better job, that all students be proficient in reading and math by 2014. But no one ever determined what doing that would cost.

It turned out that providing a quality education isn't cheap. And, it didn't really surprise many that the Costing-Out Study found that Pennsylvania isn't spending enough -- in either state or local dollars in the vast majority of school districts -- to get the job done. The real cost is about $4 billion more than the state currently spends.

This is all relevant because after everyone's attention shifts from the state's April 22 presidential primary, state lawmakers will refocus on the task of approving a state budget by June 30. This year, Gov. Ed Rendell has proposed making a $2.6 billion, six-year commitment to live up to the findings of the Costing-Out Study.

Gov. Rendell admits he was surprised lawmakers ever commissioned the report. It's implications are political dynamite. For years, Pennsylvanians have suspected that state government wasn't adequately funding education. For years, Pennsylvanians have complained about their local school property taxes going up every budget cycle. The report documented this reality, and in doing so, tossed the responsibility about doing something about it back onto lawmakers.

But lawmakers did what they often do when they're not sure what to do. They decided to study the study. Right after the report was released last fall, state Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, proposed forming a commission to draft a new public education funding formula. It has languished in the Senate Education Committee ever since. In January, the House overwhelmingly approved formation of such a panel. Doing so will ultimately be necessary. However, delaying action until lawmakers study the implications of the Costing-Out Study just pushes off the job of helping public schools do a better job for at least another year. Then, 2014 will be one year closer.

Give Gov. Rendell credit for calling the General Assembly's bluff with his proposed education budget. He has ventured a first step. His approach isn't perfect and doesn't completely close the so-called ''adequacy gap'' between what school districts spend and what they should be spending. But, it has been embraced, with some recommendations, by 26 groups of educators and education advocates allied in the Pennsylvania School Funding Campaign. As lawmakers begin budget talks, they should heed the campaign's advice.

For instance, the Governor's plan would increase the state subsidy for 137 districts beyond a 4.4 percent inflation index. But all of those districts would have the added paperwork burden of proving to the Department of Education that 80 percent of the additional subsidy would go to programs to improve student performance. But, only 48 of those districts aren't meeting their Annual Yearly Progress goals. The campaign suggests limiting the extra accountability measures to just those districts.

Second, the campaign recommends basing state subsidies mostly on a district's wealth rather than its tax effort. Doing so would make greater strides to correcting the economic disparities between rich and poor districts.

Third, the campaign recommends that all districts at least receive a 2 percent increase in their state subsidy -- something that's often called ''hold harmless.'' Gov. Rendell has proposed a 1.5 percent minimum increase. However, under the requirements of Act 1, all 501 school districts have already built an expected 2 percent increase into their budgets. A 2 percent minimum increase is just basic fairness.

Finally, the campaign recommends at least talking about doing a better job funding special education, one of public education's fastest increasing costs. While the federal government has failed to live up to its obligations on special education, school districts still are mandated to provide programs to ever-increasing numbers of students.

All of these recommendations deserve the General Assembly's conscientious consideration.